Agro-tourism: A Sustainable Adoption Strategy for Rose Hall Estate in Guyana

The Guyana Sugar Corporation has experienced a series of misfortune, which has resulted in the Government of Guyana taking steps to diversify its operation. Through a mix method research (qualitative and quantitative), this study purpose was to determine whether agro-tourism can be a sustainably viable diversification strategy for Rose Hall Estate in Guyana. The Mendolows stakeholder matrix was used to identify all the relevant stakeholders. Key informant interviews were conducted with the High Power/Influence-High Interest and High Power/Influence-Low Interest categories of stakeholders, which provided data for a qualitative content analysis. While the Low Power/Influence-High Interest and Low Power/Influence-Low Interest categories of stakeholders were given questionnaires as their surveyed instruments. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to predict the likelihood of adoption. The finding of this study predicted that agro-tourism can be adopted as a sustainably viable diversification strategy for both education extension agro-tourism and leisure recreation agro-tourism services, which were statistically significant predicators for the likelihood of adoption. However, poor stakeholder coordination, lack of supporting policies, market, and finance and investment problems would hinder the adoption of agro-tourism.